


Reconditioned

by Talon_Tracer



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Brainwashing, Capture, Character Death, Drama, Drugs, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, F/M, Feels, Hana d.va song, Implied Widowmaker | Amelie Lacroix/Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Injury, Kidnapping, M/M, Manipulation, Memory Alteration, Multi, My First Fanfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overwatch - Freeform, Past Brainwashing, Psychological Torture, Recruitment, Talon Angela "Mercy" Ziegler, Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Talon Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Talon Tracer, Talon!Tracer, Team Feels, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 15:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11831736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talon_Tracer/pseuds/Talon_Tracer
Summary: Overwatch is slowly getting back on its feet and regaining the world's trust. Agents Winston, Tracer, Mercy, , Lucio, Soldier 76, Genji, McCree, Pharah, Mei, and Ana (possibly more) are in search of the infamous Talon to bring them down once and for all. However, things dont go to plan as Talon 'recruits' a new member into their ranks.





	1. The start or the end?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and any feed back would be appreciated.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Overwatch, though if I did, holy shit there would be a movie or several because they all have great backstories that need showing.

"I'M GOING DOWN, WINSTON! I'm gonna have to blink out of 'ere!"

"Lena? Lena? Eject! I repeat, eject your seat!"

Winston watched and listened; a feeling of dread was beginning to settle in his stomach, feeling like lead.

"Did you get out? Lena?"

The scientist's eyes grew wide as the screen remained dark and the audio feed went static. The scientist could feel his heart hammering madly into his sternum, like it was trying to carve a way out of his chest.

He let out a worried whine.

"Lena!"

he yelled, not caring that he may have looked crazy or mad. He couldn't lose contact with Lena.

The screen let out a series of blinks before a message was displayed:

\- NO SIGNAL -

He let out a huff before he ran out of the lab, sounding the roll call as he headed out to the briefing room. The briefing room itself was quite small, with just enough chairs for everyone and a large tire reserved for the scientist himself. There were two screens in the small room; one displayed the mission information whilst the other was for Athena (Overwatch's AI and friend that Winston had developed).

Slowly, everyone had begun to gather in the briefing room. Some of them were suited up in their combat gear; some, like Mai, were still in pyjamas and others were in what was considered their normal clothes.

Winston waited a moment for them to get seated before he started. "As most of you know, Lena was on a solo mission to scout out an old Overwatch base that's larger than our current and is also better equipped," he began, shifting in his tire. He wasn't too sure if he could tell them, get it out for them to know.

He took off his glasses before he covered his face with one of his large hands, heaving a sigh as his eyes began to feel too warm.

Silence followed as they waited for him to continue, yet he stayed silent. They shifted, feeling uneasy at the silence that was weighing heavy over them. The tension in the room was beginning to become unbearable as everyone remained silent, watching as the ape began to cry quietly. Mercy was the one to break the silence.

"Winston?"

The ape let out a sniff before he coughed loudly, whether it was to clear his throat or not, they didn't care. They waited for him to fully compose himself and he had to give it to them for their patience.

He placed his glasses back on top of his nose before he continued.

"So it was a solo mission. In and out and to not engage with anyone who could have been there."

He blinked slightly, willing himself to keep a good composure this time.

"The overall mission was a success,"

a weak smile flitted on his face slightly. "The base had been empty but ... on her way back, I was talking to her and then she was yelling. It turned out that the plane was going down."

His face turned grim.

"I'm afraid we have lost contact with Tracer."

He sat up, tears rolling down his face freely, finding that in that moment he no longer cared of he should've hid his despair or not. The others finally knew, knew he had screwed up. They needed to find Tracer, nothing else mattered.

"Lena Oxton, Tracer ... Tracer is officially MIA."

Gasps and murmurs began to fill the room as they took in that information. They began to look around and to each other, fear and worry clear in their faces. Winston could only watch them helplessly as they shared the same panic he had over Lena.

Winston let out a cough, grabbing their attention. "I am going to lead a small group of people to find the ship and Lena. She's a smart girl, she'll stay within range of the plane if it's possible. Lena will know we'll try to find the plane." The others nodded in response to the plan.

Mercy gave Soldier 76 a horrible deadly look.

"I told you she shouldn't have gone alone and now look."

she spat, time accusing.

The usually calm Angela was on her feet, fists curled tight beside her, tears in her eyes.

"Lena was our friend ... you let her go out alone 76? Even if the base was suspected to have been empty, you should never have sent an agent on their own! You know to send at least one support agent."

The soldier said nothing, instead he made some incoherent noise as he crossed his arms, eyes on Angela. His lips twitched before he spoke up.

"The mission didn't need two people, Angela. You know that. Lena was fine on her own."

He told her, voice even.

Angela scoffed. "Oh, yeah, sorry, sure she's fine on her own. Then why has she been declared missing Morrison?"

Angela demanded, face beginning to redden from rage.

Angela's angry expression began to fade as the tears slipped down her face, though her fists shook; the urge to punch the Commander in the face very tempting.

Angela and Lena had gotten close over the past year, and now she had lost her close friend, the odds of finding her not looking too good. Lena could have died in the crash or had been taken only for something much worse to happen. Angela knew she would eventually have to deal with the idea of never seeing Lena again, but not yet. She couldn't.

She shut her eyes briefly before she opened them and looked over at Winston.

"I'm going with you, you might need my support."

she stated, even though her voice was shaking slightly, her determined expression didn't waver.

looked between them.

"I'll go too,"

she piped up.

"Me and my Meka will come in use at some point."

Winston nodded.

"Thank you."

He turned to the others.

"We must leave as soon as possible. We don't want to give Lena something to moan about."

he said, a weak chuckle escaped his mouth as he tried to lighten the mood.

"We will meet up at the jet in half an hour. Suit up with your full gear and weapons."

Winston took his glasses off again, wiping them down from the tears that had splashed against the lens, face turning serious.

"Something brought that plane down and we might have to take it down."

Those in the room shared the same look of determination before they left the room to get ready. Anyone who wasn't going on the mission had started to look at satellite images, among other forms of possible helpful information that could pinpoint Tracer's location.

About two hours later, the jet was gliding over what had been Tracer's last location. The location itself was a large forest district in the heart of Switzerland.

It was up to them to look for evidence of the plane and their friend. Their hopes had risen when they saw that there was no smoke spiralling in the air; so she hadn't crashed.

Or so they thought.

As they passed over a different treeline, they saw smoke rising in the air in the distance; as the jet continued to close towards it, the wreckage came into view.

Winston made the jet land (maybe not as smoothly as he could've) and he was up and out of the jet in record time, before either Angela or Hana had even unbuckled their seatbelts.

For the most part, the plane was largely intact; the most damage was one of the wings was sticking out of the ground several feet away. The paint on the outside of it had been scratched up from the branches and the glass in the cockpit had been smashed along with the console.

There were also a few fires, which Angel a quickly disposed of. hopped into her Meka and began to video the surroundings, the video going back to their base for the others to see.

"We can retrieve and repair the plane." Soldier 76 said, voice coming through on the comms slightly tinny.

Angela pulled a disgusted face towards Winston and Hana, both of whom were wearing similar expressions at the words Morrison said.

"We aren't here for the plane, Soldier, we are here for Tracer."

Winston bit back a sigh before he removed his earpiece and pocketed it quietly. The three begun to look around the immediate area, starting to call out for Lena. (In their own ways, of course.)

"LENA?"

"TRACER?"

"SONIC?"

Winston and Angela both stopped, stymied for a moment as they both turned to Hana and gave her matching puzzled looks.

"What? ... Sonic: blue, super fast, hedgehog. Lena: super fast, blue streak, spiked hair?"

Hana shook her head.

"Never mind. Lena!"

Angela let out a cry, making Winston look over at her.

"W-Winston, I ... I don't see her."

she whispered, eyes wide with fear as she took to her wings, eyes scanning the areas near the crash site.

"No ..."

Winston had begun to examine the plane and realised something was wrong: Lena's seat hadn't ejected.

Hana moved over to stand beside the scientist, palm resting on his shoulder reassuringly.

"She will have blinked out, Winston."

she said calmly.

Winston shook his head, flapping a large hand towards her.

"The seat isn't the problem, Hana, look closer."

Hana squinted, following Winston's line of sight. She shrugged, pulling back.

"I'm sorry, I can't see what you do."

Winston huffed before he reached down into the wreckage of the console and pulled out a single bullet fragment. "Tracer was attacked."

Hana couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her as Angela landed beside them with a dull thump. Her head was bowed, voice shaking. "W-Winston?"

Hana looked up, realising she was crying as her eyes felt to o warm and her cheeks felt wet. Winston froze.

"You need to see this."

Angela looked between the two and the Meka that had been sending video footage to the others.

"Then stop that recording too."

She nodded her compliance, ending the recording almost immediately.

Back at the base, where the rest of them had been watching were trying to withhold their tears. Until of course chaps ensued when Hana turned off the recording.

Of course everyone feared the worst; death. But what faced Winston, he knew to be worse than death for Lena.

Propped up against a rock was Lena's chronal accelerator. "No." Winston whispered, sprinting over to pick up the harness and examine it.

"NO!"

Winston dropped the accelerator and let out a roar. His eyes began to burn a bright yellow as he turned a faint red, electric sparks flew from him as he let his animal instincts take over and pound against the earth and nearby trees in a blind fury.

Angela could only stand and watch as her friend got lost within his primal rage, whilst Hana stood alone in disbelief, eyes locked on the harness cast aside on the , Winston calmed down, with no more energy within him to go into another flurry of rage. Sobs began to leave him as he clutched what had been left of his friend.

"Angela ... Hana ... call ahead and tell them to get the recall chamber up and running; she might have gone back into the slipstream."

Winston said thickly, feeling hot tears streaking down his face. He picked up his fallen glasses that had been discarded during his fit of rage and placed them on his nose as he forced himself to regain himself.

 

That was three months ago.


	2. Dark days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter in Reconditioned. The team must make a hard decision to help Winston.

For three months Winston stayed in his lab monitoring the slipstream and the recall chamber waiting for Lena to come back. For three months he hardly ate or slept. Angela and Ana begged him to sleep and forced him to eat. He wouldn’t even touch peanut butter which for his friends was a giant indication that something was wrong. Winston yawned looking at the monitors again. 

“Sleep Winston, I will alert you if there is a change.” 

Athena’s robotic voice piped up echoing in the empty lab. 

“Athena please I’m fine!”

Winston grumbled his own AI turning against him. By now Winston’s eyes were sunken and fur starting to smell as he sat there. Day after day. Week after week. Waiting. Hoping. 

The rest of the team had begun to go back on missions but they never forgot about Lena, they would often drop in and bring food that Winston never eat. The scientist hated that all he could do for his friend was sit and wait. He wanted to be out there beating the crap out of whoever had done this and he had a pretty good idea who, but with no evidence and no known whereabouts of Talon how could he? It would be a suicide mission anyway. All they had to go on was a single bullet recovered from the ship's console. For the millionth time Winston opened the draw and removed the bullet from a small glass case examining it. The bullet looked normal enough except it hadn’t matched any known gun or ammunitions maker. He sighed, placed the bullet on the desk and sat back.

“Athena scan for a match.” 

“Winston, please I only ran the scan one hour ten minutes and thirty-four seconds ago there won’t be a match. Please sleep, your vitals …”

Winston sighed. “I told you to stop monitoring me Athena!” 

Clearly annoyed Winston snatched away the bullet and put it away in the box in the draw and left the lab.

“Athena as soon –”   
he was cut off by the computer.

“Yes I know Winston any change no matter how minor I must alert you. Know go eat.”

He hated leaving the lab these days; he knew the others would try to drag him to medical for Mercy to exam him, or they would attempt to lock the lab so that he would sleep, only it never worked. The last good sleep he got was about three weeks ago when Ana used her sleeping darts to force him to rest. To no one’s surprise he was angry at Ana for this, but she didn’t care and if she caught him without sleep again, she would continue to do it. With Ana's threat fresh in his mind, Winston snuck around the halls and into Lena’s room. The room had been on lockdown ever since she disappeared. Winston never let anyone in but himself. Here he could relax and think surrounded by Lena’s things.   
“Come on, Lena, where are you … give me a clue.”

he said, looking around the room.

Shortly after Lena had disappeared, he saw her shadow there in her room. She looked battered. He remembered how she had looked him in the eyes her lips moving, screaming at him silently for help. Mercy said it was a dream, Jack said he was delusional, D.va said she believed him, but knew she thought the same as Mai … he missed her so much he was seeing her but it was only one isolated event.

“You are trying to get home, aren’t you? The others think I’m crazy, Lena, please…. we need you back!” 

His eyes filled with tears as he sat there missing his friend. They hadn’t even told Emily yet, as far as she knew, Tracer was on a long mission. Just outside the door, Angela and Hana had heard crying and knew Winston must be inside. 

“He’s doing it again, Angela.” Hana said quietly, looking over at Angela.

“Poor guy …. He needs closure.”

she replied. At that point both Angela and Hana had begun to tear up.

“Oh, my god …. c-closure … Angela, you don’t mean?” 

Hana’s voice was filled with worry as she turned to the doctor. 

“No, no, no, I’m sure she’s out zer, Hana, it’s just –” 

Angela sighed her eyes filling with tears. 

“I’m just … I’m not sure if ve will see her again. I can help but think it Hana, I don’t want to … I just.”   
Angela broke into tears and both women left the door comforting each other. The two headed to the common room where the others will have been gathered. To discuss Winston’s condition with the others and what they should/ can do to help him.

The suggestion of closure got mixed responses from the team. Hana, Mai and Lucio wanted to keep looking and while Angela, McCree and Rinehart wanted to keep looking; however they had started to doubt a positive outcome while Jack just wanted everyone to move on already. 

“Face it … she’s gone. We all know we can’t save everyone and despite what Mercy says about heroes never dying, they do. Move on … besides we need to shift our resources elsewhere.” 

he said to the others. Angela scoffed, shaking her head. 

“Of course you are just about the resources, Jack – you disgust me. VOT HAPPENED TO THE REAL JACK MORRISON?”

Angela’s outburst had shocked everyone in the room. Her face was bright red with anger. 

“You know what go screw yourself, soldier!”

Angela was clearly riled by Morrison. No-one had seen her like that before. Morrison just gave a grunt and stood up, leaving the room. Everyone watched him leave as Angela threw herself into a chair and began to cry.

“I’m sorry … I’m so sorry!” 

“Tis not your fault, Angela. It needed to be said,”

Rinehart sat beside her drawing her into a hug. Angela let out a muffled whine.

“But it is true to say what do we do about the Winston – Lena situation.” 

Hana sighed and joined in crying.

“Angela is right. Winston, all of us need closure – but we could keep Athena working on scans, right?” They all looked to Hana with a small smile.   
Plans where made that night. On both sides

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank yo all for the support, kudos and reviews in this story. I also want to thank my awesome beta reader, GeorgeCantWrite for helping me as i will admit i'm not the best at grammar spelling and stuff hahaha.
> 
> Id also like to Solarbird for pointing out that my formatting had changed i didn't preview this chapter before posting so thanks.


	3. A shred of hope.

**Hey guys I’m sorry for the massive delay and want to thank you all for the support. This chapter hasn’t been beta read so there are most likely mistakes, so I want to apologise in advance and hope you can all help me sort any mistakes. Thanks again and sorry again, but please enjoy.**

**Reconditioned chapter three**

** A shred of hope **

 

A simple hole. A simple stone. The Overwatch logo adorned the top of it. Pilot, Agent, Friend. The search will always go on. It was just round the back of the Overwatch building where they had all gathered. All in black apart from Winston.

“This is ridiculous!”

“WINTSTON PLEASE… ve all know how you feel and ve don’t believe it either, but everyone needs closure. ALL of us Winston, there isn’t just you feeling this way…ve need to help each other.”

Mercy sighed tearing up she hugged Winston. Her words true. No one believed Lena was gone, no one wanted to believe apart from Jack, but he never cared anymore. All Morison cared for was the mission and the Overwatch name there was no room for emotions. However even Jack turned up in black. Angela knew he liked Lena, she always got the job done and gave him a laugh in her cadet days from stealing food from beneath Ana’s nose to when she still wasn’t used to her ability and blinked right onto Angela during their first training practice. It was true that everyone, except jack, would continue to look for Lena, even though Mercy hoped that Jack would see sense and would help.

“She doesn’t need this Winston…. she will be home soon so until then you need to take care of yourself.”

Hana chirped in as Winston started to tear up.

“I…. its empty, n… no proof… she’s still out there!”

Angela and Hana both held Winston as he yelled. The scientist would beat them in a fight normally, but he was weak from sleep and very emotional.

“You’re right Winston. She will come home, but till zen ve need to get sleep and eat and help others.”

“We have buried an empty box in what is effectively our back garden like some pet you can replace. LENA CAN’T BE REPLACED!”

“Ve aren’t trying to replace her Winston. Ve are trying for some closure in zis matter.”

Angela tried to convince Winston to relax but it was only after Ana’s dart did he relax. The team dragged him inside and put him in his oversized bed. No one really talked after that, no one could. They had just buried an empty coffin, said goodbye to air. They all felt the same, all came to realise the same thing.

“Zis is so wrong,”

Angela finally broke the silence.

“If… When Lena comes home how are ve meant to explain a grave to her? ve needed to help Winston, I get zat but he is currently sedated and still very emotionally unstable.”

“What are you getting at Doc?”

“What I’m getting at Jack is zis did nothing to help!”

Angela was very annoyed with jack, this was clear to everyone but still he would ask the obvious like he was trying to push her to the edge. The room was tense as she stood staring the soldier down. Suddenly there was a crash.

“Better see to your patient Dr Zieglar.”

Angela huffed, as jack hid behind his visor no one could see his face.

“Zis isn’t over jack. Only cowards and people with something to hide wear masks with their friends, and I’m not talking about your dam visor”

She stormed out the room followed closely by Hana.

“I thought you and Morrison were close Angela”

The doctor huffed sounding offended almost.

“Me and the soldier are not friends Hana. Not these days anyway.”

Hana just nodded not wanting to bring up a clearly touchy subject. As they walked there was a series of crashes from Winston’s direction. Hana and Angela picked up the pace through the corridors to Winston’s room. The door was open only by a crack but enough to see the papers all over the floor. They both looked at each other with worry in their eyes before Hana opened the door. Winston’s normally tidy room was a mess with messy drawings and blueprints on everyone’s gear. It was clear he was trying to find something, Angela scanned the room and quickly realised that all the blueprints had been adapted. Winston was trying to improve as he always did wanting his friends to have the best.

“Winston? Buddy you going to come to dinner.”

Hana stepped in carefully not standing on any of the drawings. Winston was hunched over something on his bed huffing as he worked.

“Winston please come you must eat!”

Angela walked in straight to Winston. She looked down and looked at Hana motioning her to walk over. Winston was sat with what was left of Lena’s accelerator from the crash site. He had cleaned it up and repaired what was there. He was just looking at it, staring at the harness then at blue prints next to him.

“This is…. I’m missing something  …HANG ON!!!”

His eyes grew large with excitement. He jumped up and smiled the first in months as he started to jump about the room both Angela and Hana looked at each other confused by his behaviour. The scientist dashed out the room pushing Angela and Hana out his way as he ran through the base.

“Winston … wait!”

They both ran trying to keep up with Winston. He easily out ran them and dashed into the lab crashing into the table as he did.

“Angela, what did I build for Tracer? …Angela?”

He looked around just as the two ladies stumbled into the room out of breath, but Winston smiled a large toothy grin.

“What did I build Tracer?”

“Winston are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Now please what did I build Lena?!”

“You built her Chronal accelerator. Winston please you are making no sense!”

He smiled swinging up to his tire then to shelf of small dull white boxes, all of them old and torn in places. Winston picked one box up that bulged a little more than the others. The words ‘Cadet Oxton’ was written on the box in the scientist’s messy writing. He swung back down, eyes large with joy at the box as he sat it down carefully.

“In here is the blue prints for her accelerator as well as a few other pieces. Lena’s Chronal Accelerator …..and anchor…”

He paused hoping that one of them would catch on.

“Winston please you need to start making,”  
Angela stopped her words slur into silence as the cogs clicked in her head.  
“Anchor? … ANCHOR! Winston, you don’t mean?”

Winston’s smile grew, for the first time since the crash he was looking like himself. He yelled in triumph and swung around a nearby gas pole. Angela joined in laughing and smiling pulling Hana into a hug. Hana on the other hand was still very much clueless to what the other two were happy about.

“Does someone want to explain the situation to me?”

D.Va finally piped up after moments of confusion.

“Why isn’t it obvious Hana?”

Asked Winston in his gruff voice as he pushed his glasses back up his face.

“Oh of course it’s so obvious the genetically enhanced super ape and the golden prodigy of science that got her doctors licence at only 15 could figure it out, as well as the 19-year-old gamer. Seriously?”

Hana’s words were so full of sarcasm Winston had a hard time deciding if she had realised the situation or if she was being sarcastic.

“Well I’m glad we are all on the same page.”

Winston said with a nod to Hana. Angela rolled her eyes and gave Winston a jab to the arm.

“Winston,”

She laughed.

“She is being sarcastic, she doesn’t understand.”

Hana had never face palmed so hard in her gaming or agent career and she had dealt with some serious noobs in various games messing up her quests.

“Ohhh, whoops sorry my mistake.”

He said with a chuckle.

“Winston as much as I enjoy seeing you smile and laugh again maybe ve should explain to Hana what you discovered. Hm?”

“Oh yes of course. You see Hana Lena well to put it bluntly. She’s still out there. She isn’t in the slip stream and I can safely assume she isn’t dead she’s very much alive and out there.”

Hana beamed with delight that soon faded.

“Wait, how do you know this?”

“well simply Hana she’s still anchored to zis plane of existence.”

“Exactly Angela,”

Winston smiled then frowned.

“I can’t believe I never thought of this before I could have saved so much time …. And resources as jack would put it.”

“Screw Jack this is GG guys. But … how do you know she’s still in our existence and time?”

Winston dashed to his board and began to draw to illustrate to Hana.

“Okay so when I built the Chronal Accelerator I built it into a harness for her to wear. At first it was just a form of anchor to keep her from slipping back into the slip stream. This anchor I made was a simple harness that sat on her back. When we came to first tests with just the anchor she was fine outside the chamber she was solid human again, but she moved slow like her time was running slower than our own, this of course was due to her Chronal disassociation. We needed a solution hence the accelerator that attached to the front of the harness which also …gave…her …the….recall”

Winston trailed off his face of joy from the discovery slowly sank to fear. He looked between Angela and Hana.

“Talon …TALON HAVE LENA!”

He ran to his computer pulling up blue prints of the accelerator and something else. The calling card that was left behind several years ago.  How could Winston of not noticed this an intruder in the system.

“NO!”

He roared breathing heavy. Angela looked at the screen in horror as the trio were bathed in the pink glow of the skull.

“S…. s…Sombra…. Winston ….v…ven was this left?”

 

“Two years ago, apparently …. I….t…. this … they have planned this … studied her and her equipment …. This was no accident they wanted Lena.”

The screen flashed white before the purple skull appeared, pulsing and rotating. Letters appeared one by one.

C.L.E.V.E.R     A.P.E     B.U.T     T.O.O     S.L.O.W  
  
Just as Winston started to type back his computer shut down.


End file.
